A true genius could stand above any era, even the future. At that moment, the proud prodigy of Africa finally understood that truth.
Only Kag still looked completely bewildered. He was a warrior; to him, strength came through effort and training.
The despair that existed between wizards was something he simply couldn't grasp. To surpass an era by thousands of years? That went far beyond anything he could imagine a "genius" to be.
"Then... is he even human anymore?" Kag couldn't help asking, the question itself challenging the very nature of Ian Prince's existence.
Saruman was silent for a long time, looking at the impossibly young figure in the distance, a boy who nevertheless seemed to hold fragments of the universe's deepest truths in his hands.
Finally, he answered in a hesitant, almost dreamlike voice. "Perhaps... when we speak of a 'Legendary'... we're no longer talking about humans at all."
His voice grew quiet.
"I once found a nearly shattered stone tablet in the deepest part of the Raven Ruins. It contained fragments of records from an age long lost. They claimed that, in some forgotten era, powerful wizards walked among the stars... they wielded natural laws as weapons... and even hunted beings ordinary people worshipped as gods."
His voice grew even softer, filled with doubt. "But now... after seeing 'him'... I'm no longer sure."
Perhaps it was the ripple in Saruman's thoughts traveling through the mental link. Perhaps it was the specific mention of the 'Raven Ruins', tugging ever so slightly at some unseen thread of fate. Or perhaps... it was simply coincidence.
The instant Saruman spoke those two words, "Raven Ruins", Ian Prince, who had been completely absorbed in deciphering the magic array with his starlight tracings and three-dimensional runes, paused.
The movement was so slight it was almost impossible to notice. He didn't turn around, merely tilting his head a fraction as those deep eyes casually swept toward the fallen pillar where Saruman and Kag were hiding.
This time, both of them felt it far more clearly than before. That wasn't an absent-minded glance.
For just the briefest instant, there seemed to be a trace of surprise in his eyes. It was like a scholar immersed in solving an impossibly difficult problem suddenly hearing a few advanced technical terms from his own field being spoken by ants beside his feet.
The ants themselves weren't important, but what they had said was enough to earn a moment of attention.
For Ian, it really was like that.
The Raven Ruins had always been something he cared about. Of course, he had more important things to deal with right now; questioning the two humans who had suddenly appeared wasn't worth interrupting his work.
But from Saruman's and Kag's perspective, that brief glance carried a completely different meaning.
Ian immediately looked away and resumed deciphering the array, as though he had done nothing more than brush aside a speck of dust. Yet that single glance nearly made both of their hearts stop.
"My God... I think I almost died..."
Cold sweat instantly soaked through their backs, and they could feel each other's bodies trembling.
"H-He really heard us?!" Kag's fear echoed through their mental link.
"Not... not necessarily..." Saruman tried to reassure him, though his own voice shook. "Maybe he only sensed the fluctuation in our thoughts..."
Even he didn't sound convinced.
Before an existence like Ian, wishful thinking felt utterly meaningless. Deep down, Saruman already knew: Ian had discovered them from the very beginning.
But pretending otherwise was much easier on the nerves. Fortunately, Ian truly seemed to have no interest in them, giving them no further attention after that brief glance.
The two forced themselves to calm down once more, though their lingering fear remained as they continued watching in complete silence.
Yet R'lyeh City, or perhaps the sleeping Cthulhu itself, hadn't given up on stopping Ian. Its physical servants had been mercilessly exterminated. Now, something far more subtle, far more insidious, something that struck at the very foundation of existence itself... quietly descended.
It wasn't another monster or another spell. It was a change in the atmosphere itself. The eternal, dim yellow light hanging over the plaza slowly began to twist, its color darkening into the deep, unfathomable hue of an abyssal whirlpool beneath the sea.
The whispers filling the air were no longer just random, maddened murmurs. They began to gather and weave together into an ancient, blasphemous hymn that seemed to contain both the universe's deepest truths and its greatest despair.
It couldn't be heard with the ears; it resonated directly within the mind. Its song carried an indescribable temptation, inviting every listener to abandon thought, abandon the self, and become one with the eternal, chaotic dream.
At the same time, a thick mist seeped from the twisted green-stone buildings, its surface shimmering with iridescent colors like oil floating on water.
The mist drifted slowly through the plaza, and wherever it passed, even space itself seemed to grow sluggish and warped, radiating an overwhelming corruption capable of twisting both reality and perception.
"Damn it! We're getting caught up in this too!"
Even though they were only on the edge of the phenomenon, Saruman and Kag were overwhelmed by waves of nausea and dizziness.
Their consciousness began to blur as hallucinations flooded their vision: an immense shadow stretching across the stars, endless writhing tentacles, a magnificent city sinking into the deepest ocean.
They had to summon every ounce of willpower just to remain conscious. Even then, their skin began to itch, as if something inside their bodies were trying to claw its way out.
"They're hallucinations! Don't believe them!" Saruman shouted at Kag.
"R-Right! I trust you, Saruman!" Kag's voice shook with terror, but he chose to believe him.
This kind of danger was unlike anything they had ever faced.
Corruption had no shape, no substance, yet it was everywhere, striking directly at the deepest parts of the soul.
This was R'lyeh's truest welcome, its method of assimilation. Resisting it was harder than climbing into the heavens; at best, they could only slow the inevitable.
"Damn it..."
For a moment, Saruman believed no one could withstand this. But when he forced himself to look toward the center of the corruption, toward Ian Prince, he witnessed a scene he would never forget.
The twisted rays of light reached to within roughly three feet of Ian... and stopped. It was as though they had collided with an invisible, perfectly transparent wall, bending away automatically and flowing around him without touching him in the slightest.
The blasphemous hymn that invaded the mind simply vanished the moment it reached his surroundings, like a stone sinking into the sea without leaving even the faintest ripple. Not a single expression crossed Ian's face; he remained completely unaffected.
By now, Ian had thoroughly studied Cthulhu's corruption. He had uncovered knowledge that should never have been learned, knowledge so forbidden that no ordinary wizard should ever possess it.
Because of that, he had achieved something no other wizard could: corruption no longer affected him at all.
The shimmering, iridescent mist, capable of distorting reality, behaved as though it had encountered its natural enemy.
Long before reaching Ian, it dispersed on its own, retreating instinctively as though an absolutely pure domain surrounded him, a place into which no madness or filth could ever intrude.
"He can block even this?!"
From Saruman's perspective, Ian Prince wasn't merely standing there; he seemed to exist on an entirely different layer of reality. His very existence, the invisible field surrounding him, formed a domain of absolute selfhood, of absolute order.
That domain was fundamentally incompatible with R'lyeh's realm of chaos and madness. The two didn't merely oppose one another; Ian's existence completely overwhelmed it.
For Saruman and Kag, who still belonged to the realm of mortals and remained trapped within R'lyeh's domain, the corruption was a lethal poison.
But for Ian, whose own domain had reached an unimaginable level, that corruption was like trying to stain pure gold with muddy water. It accomplished nothing. If anything, it only made the gold appear even purer.
The young Legendary stood quietly at the heart of the madness. Within three feet of him was a land untouched by corruption.
Outside, light twisted, the blasphemous hymn echoed, and the iridescent mist spread endlessly. Yet Ian remained perfectly still, calmly deciphering the magic array beneath his feet, without the slightest trace of corruption appearing on his cold, composed face.
"Is there... anything he can't do?"
This absolute isolation, this complete immunity, shocked Saruman even more deeply than the one-sided massacre he had witnessed moments before.
This wasn't merely greater power; it was an entirely different level of existence. R'lyeh's corruption could twist time itself and distort space, yet it couldn't shake that young man in the slightest.
'What... is he?'
Watching the solitary black figure standing untouched at the center of all that madness, the last trace of condescension, or hope that Ian was merely an exceptionally gifted young wizard, vanished from Saruman's heart. Only boundless awe and profound bewilderment remained.
'ROOOAAARRR!!'
The will of R'lyeh, or rather, the subconscious of the Sleeping God, had no intention of giving up after its earlier failures. If anything, Ian Prince's complete immunity only seemed to provoke something even deeper, something ancient and primal.
The Ancient God felt anger and unease. How could such a blasphemous existence dare maintain such pure, absolute order within Its domain? Worse, he was attempting to unravel the very secrets guarding Its core.
So the counterattack escalated. This time, there was no soul-shattering roar to announce it. The assault gathered in silence and erupted without warning.
The first thing to change was the plaza itself. The massive green stones forming the foundation of the magic array suddenly softened and began to writhe, as though the stone had become living flesh.
Countless tiny crimson veins emerged from deep within the rock, spreading across its surface and pulsing like arteries, overflowing with life. But it was a life twisted by madness, a sickening vitality that carried the damp sweetness and decay of the abyssal sea.
Then the ground began to bulge as one swelling after another rose from beneath the surface.
Some transformed into shell-covered behemoths like the earlier monsters, only far larger, their armor carved with eerie runes that glowed with ghostly light.
Others became shapeless masses of translucent flesh filled with countless blinking eyes; they possessed no fixed form, tentacles bursting from their bodies at will as acid streamed endlessly from their writhing flesh.
Others simply grew from the ground itself, towering like enormous seaweed or coral reefs, yet every branch writhed with suckers and hooked barbs while dripping a thick, sticky fluid, a secretion capable of inducing overwhelming hallucinations.
At the same time, the shadows surrounding the plaza twisted violently once again. This time, what emerged was neither Shadow Wraiths nor flying insects.
These new creatures were stranger still, looking like countless shattered souls fused together with fragments of madness. Their forms shifted constantly: one moment they resembled smoke, the next, flowing water.
They never stopped whispering as layer upon layer of chaotic voices echoed together, eroding sanity itself. Their psychic corruption was several times stronger than before, and though they possessed almost no physical form, they could directly interfere with reality.
The air became thick, light bent unnaturally, and even Saruman's perception of distance and direction began to warp.
And it still wasn't over. The rainbow-colored corruption mist grew denser; instead of drifting aimlessly, it gathered into spinning vortices, each whirlpool radiating a sinister pull capable of draining both life force and magical power.
Saruman could actually feel his protective barrier slowly being eaten away, stripped apart bit by bit.
Fortunately, the attack wasn't aimed at him, or he was certain he would already be dead. Every assault converged on Ian from every direction, sky and earth, physical and spiritual, visible and invisible.
R'lyeh had thrown everything it possessed into the battle. The entire city, perhaps even the Sleeping God itself, was trying to drown Ian Prince beneath an endless tide of madness.
No matter how powerful his domain was, no matter how vast his magic reserves, could anyone truly withstand an assault without end? The plan itself wasn't bad.
"...A Legendary should have incredible stamina... right?"
Watching from afar, Saruman and Kag were terrified, feeling like tiny boats caught in a hurricane. The shockwaves alone, combined with the ever-intensifying corruption, were enough to push them to their limits.
Saruman had to burn enormous amounts of magic just to maintain his defensive barriers and protect his mind, while the black markings creeping across Kag's arm throbbed violently, as if about to cross some irreversible threshold.
Yet, standing at the very center of the storm, facing an attack ten times fiercer and a hundred times more complex than before, Ian Prince's expression never changed. He didn't even stop deciphering the magic array.
Only when the first shell beast burst from the ground, slamming down its rune-covered claws...
…when the first amorphous flesh mass unleashed a flood of corrosive acid...
…when the psychic amalgam shrieked with enough force to tear souls apart…
…when the corruption vortices began draining magical power... did Ian finally seem to find the noise slightly irritating.
He lazily raised his eyes. Then he did something that nearly made Saruman scream.
His right hand never stopped analyzing the magic array, continuing his calculations without the slightest interruption. At the same time, with his free left hand, he casually flicked it to the side.
(End Of This Chapter)
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